Hello All...

Just wondering if anyone can offer me any advise. I have been dealing with "Maria", or "Ms. Dawson" as she is recently calling herself, from NCO Financial Inc.  In August she called me and offered a "buyout" on my CSL's.  She asked me to obtain a loan from wherever possible (even gave an example of a place called "one stop mortgage").  I attempted to get a loan through my bank and was turned down, however, they did offer me the money based on my parents co-signage.  During this entire process I recieved regular calls from "Maria".

This week the money was deposited into my account from my bank to pay off the loan.  I called "Maria" to ask her for a letter that stated that upon reciept of these funds the debt would be paid in full.  She said that she would put the letter in the mail the following day (Tuesday), but she would need an immediate e-payment of $150 to move forward with the letter(?).  Being the trusting FOOL that I am, I sent the $150 and waited...

Yesterday, while waiting by the mailbox with images of an improved score on my credit bureau dancing in my head, "Maria" called, and stated that 'her supervisor' had made a miscalculation.  She said that the buyout for the loan was now $3800 more than what we had agreed upon.  She then immediately said that if I paid the original amount, I could pay the $3800 next month... YEAH RIGHT...  I had a great crop on the old money tree in my back yard this fall...  She then started up with the over the phone financial information thing.

MY QUESTIONS TO YOU INCLUDE:

1. do you think they ever intended to settle the debt with me, or were they just jacking me around?

2.  I recently married... can they touch my husbands wages, or our joint accounts?

3.  Should I be providing financial info to them EVER?  Or should I just make regular payments based on what I can make? (My wage was just rolled back 15%)

4.  Should I send them a letter stating that due to my financial circumstances the only monies that I can offer them will come in the form of the agreed upon settlement?

I hope that anyone out there in student loan land can provide me with some ideas here....... Your input is appreciated.

Hammy.

 1. No. Collectors are notorious for tossing around "settlement" numbers. Collectors will do this to see what kind of money you can come up with - and then try to get you to pay it to them as a good faith payment because the lender "all of the sudden changed their minds" or "they had miscalculated the settlement amount". In other cases, they are able to accept the amount specified, but feel that they can push you to get more - and this results inthe games being played as you have described.

 2. No. They cannot approach your husband in any way. They cannot garnishee him, or seize his bank account, etc. That is impossible, unless he co-signed for the debt which is not a common thing with student loans.

 3. It depends on the debt and it's position at this time. If it is Crown debt, then yesa, you must sumbit financial substantiations at different stages. First, make sure that the debt is Crown if they (the colletor) is telling you it is. They play these tricks on people all of the time as well. Get proof of the debt - and its identity before submitting anything.

 4. No. What youwould be doing here is forcing the hand of the lending institution or government that you owe the money to. That is not a good move.

 Lastly, NCO has certainly placed you at financial risk. These loan companies and "mortgage companies" are extremely high risk. They areNOT even allowed to refer you to such places - especially if the debt is Crowned (Provincial or Federal). It is against their directives to do this.

 Collectors have a thing going on with high risk lending institutuions. This is because they are more lenient in lending than banks are. They are also a great source of information to the collectors if they discover that you are already a client of one of these firms.

Remember, if you are going to seek a loan to consolidate a student loan in collection, you should steer clear of interest rates of more than 11%. High risk financiang is attorcious - and often places people at even further financial crisis!!!! Loans that are attached to an interest rate of more than 26% is craziness.

 If you want help with this, I can do you a world of justice. Let me know.

Johnny  

You might want to consider putting the money back on the loan if you can't make an accomodation with the collection agency. If it were me in your shoes and they did such a thing, I would tell the collection agency that I have the money originally agreed on but will not have it in 24 hours and leave the ball in their court. If they refuse to budge, I would pay off the loan and go back to the status quo. At least you will know that in the future if things fall into place, you might be able to get a cosigned loan again.